Thank you for your nomination Makkovar, I am humbled by this gesture! I would also like to give you my sincere apologies for not giving you and update for a week. I was busy with my university studies and was struggling with an assignment I had to hand in today. I should now have slightly more free time to concentrate on more important matters.
@Enewald: "Exists" is a highly relative term unfortunately...
@Wiliart: It indeed is, much more appropriate than the BBB acronym in my opinion.
@Ygor: My manpower is pretty much depleted, but over half of my army consists of mercenaries so most of my losses are monetary in nature.
@Matnjord: As you can see in some of the pictures it is closing in on 40%. Aragon is pretty much done for, all I need to do is wait for the AI to make peace with them.
@DaVegaNL: I think victory over France will remain a distant dream, unfortunately.
@GreatUberGeek: Thanks a bunch!
V - Aftermath of the War
While I suffered a defeat in Spain, the Eastern Front has also fallen into dismay with Austrian troops forced to retreat from their realm by the French and their allies. The positive side of this is that Austrian army is now fighting nearer to my men, allowing for limited cooperation (the Archduke remains woefully unwilling to stick with my men and prefers to go his own ways).
But at least our other war came to a close. In July 1485 Aragon accepts a peace offer from Naples and the eastern half of Sicily chanmged owenrship. It is unfortunate that I didn't manage to gain a dime from the war, but at least one of my nemeses is considerably weaker now. I also managed to sign a white peace with the Teutonic Order at last, bringing our silly war to an end.
The Archduke's men ended up trying to occupy Franche-Comté, but an attack by a ridiculously small French army drove them on a retreat once again. I am beginning to suspect that the French harbour some secret weapon that gives them a definite edge over much larger foes. Austria and I quickly join our forces, the Archduke finally willing to do so, and march up north to attack the French while their secondary army remains as small as it is.
But the French nukes were ridiculously effective....
At least we 'won' the battle.
Elsewhere France's main concentration of forces were busy occupying Castile. It boggled me why all my enemies practically ignored my land possessions and instead went on to occupy my allies and vassals. Even Venice decided to head to Naples instead of trying to pillage some of my holdings.
While I could probably send my forces down south and wipe out some of these individual droplets of besieging men, no doubt the newly improved AI would be smart enough to unite the remaining armies and force me on a retreat again. On top of this more and more French armies kept appearing in southern France, having earlier been busy occupying Austrian Netherlands which I had left out of my calculations as a possible location for hidden enemy forces, alongside which the French started a recruitment spree of new troops to bolster up their existing armies.
Not to forget the nukes...
All of the above points taken into consideration, as well as my rapidly deteriorating position, I was led to the conclusion that I should give up and try to get off with as little losses as possible.
And so I did and signed a peace in January 1486. I believe I got off with quite a light punishment in the end, considering I might have ended up being completely devastated. Besides, my only real loss is that of Genoa as I was aspiring to annex them for Corsica at the first instance, while Provence's Barrois wasn't really of concern to me due to its distant location. All in all I was rather relieved by France accepting my offer.
But immediately afterwards my pesky Ferraran neighbours go and strike up an alliance with Le Blob and my Bohemian ex-allies are bold enough to come and demand territorial concessions from me after abandoning me to the dogs. On the positive side of things I managed to strike up an alliance with the Danish powerhouse. I also sent a diplomat to England in a renewed attempt to coax them into an alliance, while another one was dispatched to fabricate a claim on Aragonese Sardinia. I will definitely want to attack my weakened Catalan neighbours at the first opportunity after our truce comes to an end.
And the game shows me more unrequited love! Luckily I have hoarded up some admin points at order was soon restored.
As I am neck-high sunk in debt again, I decided to abolish half my mercenaries in an attempt to alleviate my financial situation.
And it worked. I think my economy is doing rather fine after the war considering the fact that I am being pulled down by an interest from 18 consecutive loans.
Yes, tension is exactly what I need right now.
In August 1487 the English finally agreed to form an alliance with me. Paris shall tremble under the might of our combined forces! Then I realised the English navy is non-existent, which makes their armies rather useless to say the least. Both my diplomats were sent to fabricate more claims in my name, one in Venetian Treviso and the other in Rome itself.
Strange news from up north reach our ears. The Livonian Order managed to conduct a successful war against the shrinking Novgorodians, giving birth to a new nation in the process. We are informed of a new monastic state called Finland being established in the backwoods of Karelia, ruled by an ambivalent Metropolitan called Eerikki I. We do not yet know the full extent of his realm but we believe it to be significant.